Uniclass automorphisms of spherical buildings (Q7009912)

Let \(\Delta\) be a spherical building of type \((W,S)\) and \(\theta\) an automorphism of \(\Delta\). The displacement spectrum of \(\theta\) is given by\N\[\N\text{Disp}(\theta) = \big \{\delta(C, C^{\theta}) \; \big | \; C \in \mathcal{C} \big \},\N\]\Nwhere \(\mathcal{C}\) is the set of chambers of \(\Delta\). An automorphism \(\theta\) is called uniclass if \(\text{Disp}(\theta)\) is contained in a single twisted conjugacy class of \(W\). In this paper, the authors classify uniclass automorphisms of spherical buildings and establish a deep connection with their fixed-point structures.\N\NThe main result of the paper (Theorem 1) states that a non-trivial automorphism of a thick irreducible spherical building of rank at least \(2\) is uniclass if and only if it satisfies certain geometric conditions related to its fixed structure. These conditions involve cases where the building has specific types (such as \(A_n\), \(B_n\), \(D_n\), \(E_6\), \(E_7\), \(E_8\) and \(F_4\)) and the automorphism exhibits properties like being anisotropic, a collineation fixing a spread, or a polarity fixing a metasymplectic space.\N\NAs a consequence, the authors explicitly determine the twisted conjugacy classes that arise as displacement spectra of uniclass automorphisms (see Table 4 in the paper). They also introduce the notion of Weyl substructures, which play a key role in their classification.\N\NThe paper provides a detailed analysis of the displacement spectra \(\text{Disp}(\theta)\), proving that the classification of uniclass automorphisms of non-thick spherical buildings reduces to the thick irreducible case. The results also connect uniclass automorphisms to the Freudenthal-Tits magic square and certain structures in the theory of algebraic groups and buildings.\N\NMoreover, the authors discuss applications to involutions in spherical buildings and their role in Phan theory and Kac-Moody groups (see [\textit{R. Gramlich} et al., J. Group Theory 14, No. 2, 213--249 (2011; Zbl 1234.20037)]). They show that uniclass involutions always exhibit large fixed structures, with implications for the structure of automorphism groups.